Sweet or savoury? Try both award winning snacks
Those looking for a sweet or savoury treat have some help finding the best the Stampede has to offer.
For the past four years, a panel of judges determines the top new foods in myriad categories for the “Take a Bite Outta Stampede” competition, to help Stampede foodies find the can’t-miss booths.
“I wanted to set it up like Top Chef, so the judges are sitting there on the panel and the vendor comes and has four minutes to present. This year we also had dishes to raffle off to the crowd, which was new this year,” said Lisa Conboy, part of the Stampede’s Concessions and Exhibits committee.
The award for the best new sweet food went to The Peanut Butter Cupboard for their Sweetheart, which is two honey cruller doughnuts pressed together with peanut butter and a peanut butter cup, all grilled.
Sheila Fetter, the new owner of The Peanut Butter Cupboard, couldn’t have been happier after the work that went into developing the recipe for this year’s Stampede.
Through a lot of trial and error, Fetter and the booth’s chef, alongside the previous owners, found the winning recipe.
“I was surprisingly disappointed when we tried it with chocolate doughnuts, because I thought chocolate and peanut butter would be a shoe-in, but it really wasn’t that awesome.”
Scott and Karlye Dennis have been the owners of Big Coco’s Corn Dogs since 2010, and have 16 trailers out of which they sell their fair food creations.
They were awarded for best new savoury treat for the Big Pickle Tornado, which is half a pickle and hotdog wrapped with bacon and cheese in a tortilla and deep-fried.
“Everyone loves bacon, pickles and hotdogs, and everyone loves corn dogs,” said Scott.
Karlye added, “It’s amazing to win because we work extremely hard all summer and we take the winter to come up with new ideas and make the trailers look beautiful. We take pride in our trailers.”
The Peanut Butter Cupboard also took home the Best Rookie award, which is judged according to value, taste and presentation.